Oppose SB333

SB333 would end protections for your neighborhood, your health and your community. The bill would require cities, counties or the State to PAY property owners NOT to do activities that would hurt the public good.

SB333 would be a de facto ban on protections from landfills, loud and dirty factories, liquor stores or incinerators being in your neighborhood. It will cripple positive zoning actions for environmental, public health, safety, or community planning.

SB333 radically expands the definition of a public taking. "Takings" are generally understood to be when a government action renders your property unusable. SB333 gives a right for a landowner to get a jury trial if a zoning rule or regulation negatively affects property values by as little as 10%.

Municipalities and the state will not be able to afford the increased litigation and cost of good "quality of life" zoning for fear of being sued and incurring tons of costs/judgments.

We all depend on good zoning and regulatory programs to keep noxious businesses from moving next door and to prevent industrial activities from harming our health, our air or our water. Rules limiting the amount of pollution an industrial factory can emit will become nearly impossible to implement, no matter how reasonable.

SB333 makes it more difficult to protect our heritage and state treasures. It will make increased protections for things like the Buffalo River and other Arkansas natural wonders more difficult. It will make historical overlays protecting things like the Governor’s Mansion area in Little Rock more difficult to enforce.

Curiously, SB333 exempts Federal Law from this radical notion of a taking but does not give Arkansas lawmakers or Arkansas city and county officials the same consideration. Current law already protects communities from regulatory overreach by requiring city and state officials to run for elections.

SB333 should be stopped. The average taxpayer should not have to pay a small number of landowners not to place their noxious businesses in their neighborhoods, not to pollute, or not to destroy the public's fish, wildlife, national parks and other resources.